


Sleep Cycles

by Crowlows19



Category: Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies)
Genre: Fluff, Kid Fic, M/M, Sleep Cycles, cuteness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-18
Updated: 2015-04-18
Packaged: 2018-03-24 15:24:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,096
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3773686
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Crowlows19/pseuds/Crowlows19
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Yondu's family life told through all the times when he was asleep, trying to fall asleep, and unable to sleep. Family fic. Pure Fluff.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sleep Cycles

Yondu was used to Kraglin spreading out in his bed, taking up more room than was called for, and snoring in his ear. Thankfully, Yondu was used to sleeping through loud noises be it the clanking of a ship engine or explosions or just plain yelling. He was far more uncomfortable in quiet sleep places than he was in loud ones. And, so, Kraglin and his loud snoring did nothing but lull him into a deep sleep.

Over time, he even got used to the warmth of another body and the inevitable cuddling. Kraglin was always the one to go to bed first (Yondu has been living on a minimum of sleep hours since he was out of the pouch) and when Yondu eventually slid in beside him, Kraglin would, without fail, have to touch him in some way. Sometimes it was just a hand on his shoulder, back, or hip. Other times Yondu had woken up to Kraglin wrapped around him so completely that Yondu was close to overheating. Trying to dislodge him would prove to be impossible and so Yondu would have to elbow him awake or risk passing out.

Kraglin rarely had nightmares or even dreams, having the innate ability to slip into a deep, dark hole for hours on end. Sometimes Yondu would curl up next to him and simply watch him sleep and sometimes he would plan missions at the table in their shared quarters, Kraglin’s sleeping presence making him calm enough to think through minute details he may not normally think of.

During one sleep cycle, Yondu was fighting off a particularly bad cold and was so miserable that he did something more or less unprecedented in his decade-long relationship with Kraglin. Immediately after dinner, he went into their quarters and went to bed first. Kraglin gave him a very odd look and asked, “Are you dying?"

Yondu grunted; Kraglin laughed. Yondu sneezed and Kraglin crawled in next to him, his warm body a welcome comfort to Yondu’s fever-racked body.

“Come ‘ere,” Kraglin ordered, forcing Yondu into his arms and throwing a leg over him. Yondu sighed and fell asleep.

00000

Yondu was deeply unfamiliar with Terran sleep cycles. Were they supposed to cry themselves into a coma or was that just this little kid? He hadn’t trusted the well being of one Peter Quill to the chaos that was the crew bunk so he had deposited the kid on a cot in the corner of his room. And while Yondu could fall asleep through any and all noise, Kraglin needed quiet in order to reach deep sleep.

“Oh, for the love of-” the man muttered angrily, jarring Yondu from his doze, and stepping heavily onto the floor. He crossed the room, knelt down, and took the plastic ear-things from the boy’s ears.

“Hey!” Peter protested, sounding indignant which Yondu found impressive because of the amount of tears on his face and snot in his nose.

“Get to the bathroom and clean yourself up,” Kraglin ordered and forced the kid up and out of his cot, marching him into the small bathroom attached to their room. The benefits of sleeping with the Captain. Yondu heard running water and grumbling and squeaky little Terran complaints. They fell quiet for so long that Yondu was quickly rousing from sleepiness due to lack of noise. He was just starting to contemplate getting out of bed to check that Kraglin hadn’t killed the kid (though Kraglin would be the least likely of them all to do so) when the two re-entered the room. Yondu watched, with growing alarm, as Kraglin led the boy not to his cot in the corner, but to the big bed. The Xandarian lifted the boy up and over Yondu to the far side of the bed by the wall. He followed quickly, inserting himself in the middle.

“Why-?” Yondu started.

“Shut up,” Kraglin mumbled sourly. Kraglin rarely defied him in public but pretty much ran their lives in private. Yondu shut his mouth. Whatever Kraglin had said in the bathroom seemed to have worked because Peter fell asleep which let Kraglin fall asleep and was soon snoring loud enough for Yondu to fall asleep. The Captain didn’t spare much thought for what any of it meant beyond blessed relief until he noticed that Peter had become irreversibly attached to Kraglin after that.

The boy followed him everywhere, a short Terran shadow to Kraglin’s lanky form. And while Kraglin gave no outward appearance that he either liked or disliked this new development, Yondu knew him well enough to know that there was no way he could complete the job without losing Kraglin in some way as well. His first mate had long held a very secret dream of one day having a family. A proper one too, with a house that didn’t move and children who begged for sweets and pets. Yondu had never held such dreams and Kraglin had never asked it of him, never mentioned it but once, in passing, while extremely drunk. But Yondu had ever forgotten and he could see the growing attachment with his own two eyes.

He could also hear it as well in the absence of Peter’s tears not only during the day cycle but during the night cycle as well. It was with this realization that Yondu started making arrangements to move the kid into the storage room that could only be accessed through Yondu’s personal chambers. Kraglin had looked at him as if he had actually done something incredibly nice but the Captain maintained that it was entirely selfish. More often than not, Peter would crawl into the bed next to Kraglin and Yondu was tired of having less space than usual. Not to mention they hadn’t had sex since the kid came on board and that was not a life he wanted to live for much longer.

Kraglin had rolled his eyes at his explanation, kissed his cheek, and left with his Terran shadow for the mess hall.

00000

By the time Peter was a teenager, he was sleeping in his own bed every night and Yondu had more or less gotten used to him. Peter had also broken out of his shell enough to ask some of the most ridiculous questions (Why are you so blue? Is it because you're cold?) and to make demands (Teach me how to fly!). Kraglin thought it was adorable; Yondu lamented the lost units.

However, he had learned more about Terran sleep cycles. Peter slept longer than even Kraglin, sometimes having to be pried out of bed with a bucket of cold water and Yondu’s bared teeth and empty threats of violence. Peter would howl at the cold, roll his eyes at the teeth, and demand breakfast. Yondu wondered if all Terran teenagers were this obnoxious or if it was just his.

These days Peter was sullen, cranky, and questioning everything either Yondu or Kraglin said no matter what it was. Yondu would tell him he stunk and to take a shower and the kid would tell him to shove it. Kraglin would tell him to eat dinner and Peter would scowl so deeply Yondu would tell him that his face would stick that way. This would only make the kid crankier.

These bad moods went on for so long that Yondu was beginning to wonder if this was Peter’s new personality but Kraglin was insistent that it would pass. Unfortunately, it didn’t pass without a ridiculous amount of sighing from the teenager and a copious amount of talking (Yondu’s least favorite conflict resolution strategy). It had been very late at night when Peter had come storming out of his room full of teenaged angst and fallen unceremoniously into Yondu’s bed. Yondu had ended up with a knee to the pouch and Kraglin had ended up with a Terran head to his stomach. Both men grunted, Yondu in pain and Kraglin in annoyance.

“Peter!” Yondu yelled, only to be ignored and kicked as Peter squirmed around so that he was firmly sandwiched between them. He had one leg over Kraglin and one arm over Yondu, taking up as much space as possible.

“Somethin’ wrong, Peter?” Kraglin asked and Yondu was very angry to note that his first mate was not nearly as angry as he should have been.

“Can I visit Terra?” the kid asked.

“No,” Yondu grunted automatically, not even bothering to register how surprising this question really was. Peter hadn’t mentioned Terra since he and Kraglin had initially bonded all those years ago. Yondu had been under the impression that the kid really didn’t care about the planet he’d left behind. And that had been fine with Yondu.

“Why not?” Peter seethed, muscles tensing up. He felt like a ball of hard energy and Yondu was very aware that Peter’s hand was very close to his face. He shut his eyes, pretending to try to fall asleep, and refused to answer. Thankfully, Kraglin was there to do what Yondu had no desire to.

“It’s not a good idea, kiddo.”

“Why not?” Peter insisted. Yondu made a mental note to lock the kid out of the hanger lest he woke up one morning to find one his ships missing. He had no desire to try and get the kid back without a punch to the face from Kraglin and rumors from the crew about how soft he’d gotten. Yondu grunted and turned on his side, effectively putting his back to Kraglin and Peter. He did, however, make a concerted effort to stay awake and hear the resolution of this conversation.

“Why do you even want to go back?” Kraglin asked, putting off having to answer and opening a door neither to them wanted to open. “You haven’t talked about Terra in years."

“I never got to say goodbye to Mom,” Peter whispered as if trying to make sure only Kraglin could hear. However, they were much too close in proximity for Yondu not to hear.

“Isn’t your mother dead?” Yondu grumbled, genuinely curious if he was remembering wrong.

“Yondu!” Kraglin snapped and the Captain knew he was in trouble. Kraglin had a remarkably strong protective streak when it came to Peter. They’d had more than one argument about it. Yondu snorted in annoyance and fell quiet.

“I never got to go to the funeral,” Peter said. “I want to say goodbye.”

“I know,” Kraglin replied. “But it isn’t a good idea.”

“Why not?”

“Because it’s dangerous,” Yondu grunted when Kraglin’s silence stretched on. His first mate sighed.

“Why?”

“It just is Quill.”

“That’s not an answer.”

“I don’t care.”

“Ugh!”

The teen jumped up and was out of the bed before Kraglin could stop him. He slammed the door of his room and Yondu heard the lock engage.

“Really, Yondu?” Kraglin snapped, annoyed.

“What?” Yondu snapped, finally sitting up to face his bedmate head on. “You want to tell him?”

“No, I don’t!”

“Then don’t jump down my throat!” Kraglin opened his mouth to answer but before he could, the door to Peter’s room reopened and he stood in the doorway, glaring at them. 

“What aren’t you telling me?” he demanded. Yondu lay back down, content to leave this entire conversation to Kraglin as he didn’t seem to want Yondu’s input in the first place. Kraglin gestured the kid over to him and Yondu had to put up with the boy, once again, making himself comfortable between them. Kraglin then spent the next hour or so telling Peter the bare bones story of why he ended up on the ship in the first place. He had left out the fact that the buyer was actually Peter’s father, a tidbit of information that Kraglin had ordered Yondu to keep quiet about. Yondu had agreed, mostly because he hadn’t cared enough to argue about it.

However, Kraglin was entirely truthful about the fact that Peter’s homeworld was likely being monitored in case he decided to return. It would be dangerous for him to go home, even briefly. Peter had been incredibly upset which Yondu had mostly slept through. All that noise had lulled him straight to sleep and he was unsurprised to find that the teen had ended up sleeping in their bed that night. He was also unsurprised that the kid was using him as a pillow and Yondu didn’t have the heart to move and wake the kid up until absolutely necessary.

00000

The night Peter and the Ravagers had parted ways, Kraglin was a little melancholy. Peter had been spending more and more time on his own before Morag claiming that living with Yondu and Kraglin was cramping his style. He really couldn’t bring girls back to the ship with the two of them poking their noses into his business every two seconds. Kraglin did it because he took his role as a parent a little too seriously; Yondu did it because he thought blocking Peter in his sexual endeavors was funny as hell. The kid would turn red in embarrassment and stammer so much that the girl would eventually find a reason to flee as quickly as possible.

However, the kid had never officially left them until now. Yondu had decided keep the little orange haired doll where he kept all of his most precious knickknacks: on a small but cluttered shelf in their private quarters. Nearly everything on that shelf had been given to him either by Kraglin or by Peter, mostly from Peter. It had been Peter who had initially sparked the knickknack habit in Yondu and it had been Kraglin who had encouraged it in his never-ending quest to have a somewhat functioning family. Yondu thought he needed to lower his expectations.

Kraglin had gone to bed sometime ago, having had his fill of merriment and alcohol but Yondu could tell by the tense muscles in his back that he might be in bed but he wasn’t asleep. Yondu put the little toy next to all the others and slid in beside him.

“We probably won’t see him for a while,” Kraglin told him and Yondu was honestly surprised to find that the thought made him a little sad.

“If you start to miss him too much, I can put a bounty on him,” Yondu offered and Kraglin snorted in amusement. “What should we do with his stuff?” Because of course Peter would leave most of his childhood things behind for Yondu to deal with. Typical.

“Just leave it where it is,” Kraglin said, sleepily. “You know how he get’s when you touch his stuff.” Yondu snorted, remembering a teenaged Quill who had thrown a full on temper tantrum at the mere thought of Yondu entering his room uninvited. Yondu had continued to do so anyway just to prove that he was the one in charge, hurt feelings be damned.

Wrapping his arms around Kraglin, Yondu pondered the events of the last few days.

“Where did he get all of those good morals?” he asked. “Did you teach him those?”

“No,” Kraglin replied, sincerely. “Must be the Terran in him.”

“Hmmm. You know this will attract his attention,” Yondu said. Peter Quill’s name would quickly spread from world to world thanks to this infinity stone crap. Ronan was a giant name, Thanos more so. And these kinds of stories had a way of spreading to even the most remote planets. This would attract the attention of Quill’s biological father and there was only so much time they had to actually tell the kid the truth before he found out on his own.

“I know,” Kraglin said. “Should we intercept him? Tell him?”

“Why you asking me? He’s your son.”

“Oh, he’s just my kid now, huh? Have you ever noticed that every time he tricks you he suddenly becomes just my kid, not our kid?”

“He’s always just your kid,” Yondu said stubbornly, kissing Kraglin’s bare shoulder gently. Kraglin laced their fingers together and pulled Yondu’s arm tight around him, pressing back against him. They were far too exhausted and bruised to even try to have sex. Twenty years ago it would have made the sex even better. Now it just made them tired and sore. They were getting old.

“I hardly think so.”

Yondu smiled slightly and pressed his forehead into the back of Kraglin’s neck.

“I miss when he was little,” Yondu said suddenly, surprising even himself. He had never pined for the old days. He had long maintained that Quill got more interesting the older he got, a sentiment that had come back to bite him in the ass.

“Oh, really?” Kraglin indulged. Yondu could practically hear him smirking.

“Yeah, really. I have this memory of him once. He’d had a nightmare and crawled in with us. First time he’d slept in the middle. First time I’d ever held him. I can see why you like it; this family thing.”

Kraglin was silent for so long that Yondu was starting to expect a snore. However, the next noise was his voice not his ever familiar snoring.

“We did pretty good I think,” he said. “Despite, being us. We raised a pretty good kid.”

“Does that mean I can tell people we’re technically responsible for saving the universe?"

Kraglin laughed, actually snorting, and managed to press even further into Yondu as if he was trying to get under his very skin.

“It’ll piss him off, so sure.”

They fell quiet after that, Kraglin’s snores soon filling the room. For the first time since Kraglin had first moved into his quarters, Yondu couldn’t fall asleep. His thoughts were filled with what would happen when Peter’s dad found out that Yondu had not only been able to find the kid but had given him to someone else to keep. Sure Yondu had eventually come around to this whole co-parenting thing that Kraglin had insisted on, but really he and Peter would never have bothered with each other if hadn’t been for the other man.

The Captain was plagued with thoughts all through that sleep cycle, mostly wondering if Peter was able to fall asleep. He’d always had a lot of trouble when he was injured. Yondu usually had to dose him to sleep. Maybe he’d send the kid a message; let him know that the special drink Yondu had always made him wouldn’t actually make him fall asleep like he’d claimed.

It was the sleeping powder he’d secretly mixed in. Yondu smirked, just imagining the kid’s face when he found that, once again, Yondu had tricked him.


End file.
